Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club

The most common part that turns up missing on the wheel covers for your Ford E-350/E-450 based Born Free motorcoaches are the decorative covers for the two functional nuts that fasten the Dicor Versa-Liner wheel covers to the wheel rim. Of the eight visible nuts on each cover, 6 are non-functional and 2 are functional - that is, only two of the 8 nuts actually hold the cover to the wheel rim.

Please advise anyone removing these wheel covers not to attempt to remove any one of the 6 non-functional nuts. Anyone applying an air-wrench to one of those nuts will cause damage to the nut cover as well as the wheel cover itself.

The two functional nuts are made up of two parts. One is the 1-3/16" ID jam nut itself which is Dicor P/N V160SD-JNT and the decorative nut cover itself which is Dicor P/N V160FO-LNC. These two nuts can be identified by the visible dimples in the nut cover which permits the cover to slide over the jam nut with a friction fit. After your wheel cover has been removed several times by having to remove these two functional nuts, the gradual loss of the friction fit means that the decorative cover over the nut can fall off and be lost. These two available parts are shown below in the 2nd photo below. Shown in the 1st photo below is the Dicor 9/16" Stud Extender, P/N V160SD-STX.

Even these two functional nuts should not be removed or installed with an air wrench. They should be installed or removed with light torque from a hand wrench to prevent visual damage to the nut covers.

These parts (and others) can be purchased directly from Dicor and are shown on their factory website: https://dicorproducts.com/product-category/wheel-products/decorative-wheel-products/versa-liner-simulators/. The cost of the Lug Nut Cover is $3.95, Jam Nut cost is $3.05, and the cost for the Stud Extender is $3.05.

The jam nuts can also be purchased from the RV Upgrade Store at their direct website link http://www.rvupgradestore.com/Dicor-JAM-NUT-V160SDJNT-p/92-1879.htm at a current cost of $3.31 each. Another independent online source would be http://www.shoprvparts.com/search.do?q=V160SD-JNT&x=0&y=0 at a current cost of $4.83 each.

The nut covers can be purchased from the RV Upgrade Store at their direct website link http://www.rvupgradestore.com/Dicor-LUG-NUT-COVER-p/92-1876.htm at a current cost of $4.35 each. Another independent online source would be http://www.shoprvparts.com/product.do?no=17975F at a current cost of $6.09 each.

The 9/16" Stud Extender, P/N V160SD-STX, can be purchased from the following online source for the current price of $4.83: http://www.shoprvparts.com/product.do?no=17985F or from the following online source for the current price of $4.94: http://tweetys.com/916rightstudextender.aspx

A fourth source for these three parts is the Born Free factory's online parts order store:http://shop.bornfreerv.com. All three parts cost $7.00 each from the factory.

NOTE: Information posted here was updated and current as of March 15, 2016

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Bill Hemme - Spencer, Iowa
E-mail: whemme@earthlink.net
2002 Born Free (Ford E-450 V10) 26' RSB
2016 VW Golf GTI - toad